CARE Centre’s Pre-Arrival Supports and Services (PASS) Program, funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, serves internationally educated nurses (IENs) who are planning to immigrate to Canada. To help IENs achieve their goals of registration and meaningful employment in Canada, PASS not only provides guidance and encouragement but ensures that IENs are well-informed about the credentialing assessment process, the Canadian healthcare system, as well as the wide variety of available educational and employment opportunities. Since program inception in 2016, over 700 nurses have accessed services and supports through PASS, with destinations across Canada.

This award is bestowed on long-standing members of RNAO who exemplify outstanding contributions to the profession of nursing in the areas of practice, education, administration or research, at the provincial, national and/or international level. This includes activities that promote RNAO among nursing colleagues, the government and other health-care partners. We have two recipients this year.

Dates and theme National Nursing Week 2020 is May 11-17. It always occurs from the Monday to the Sunday of Florence Nightingale’s birthday, May 12. The theme this year is Nurses: A Voice to Lead — Nursing the World to Health. The theme was developed by the International Council of Nurses (ICN) to showcase how nurses are central to addressing a wide range of health challenges. ICN says the theme will help raise the profile of the profession and attract a new generation into the nursing family. The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the Year of the Nurse and Midwife in honour of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth. – See more at:

The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated 2020 as the “Year of the Nurse and Midwife”, in honour of the 200th birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale.

The year 2020 is significant for WHO in the context of nursing and midwifery strengthening for Universal Health Coverage. WHO is leading the development of the first-ever State of the World’s Nursing report which will be launched in 2020, prior to the 73rd World Health Assembly.